Month: January 2018

from Simple Stitch Patterns for Embroidery, to the second of my collection of Anne Brandon Jones’ books, Stitch Pattern and Design for Embroidery. It’s in this book that she first outlines her use of gauges to mark the cloth. I haven’t been using them, because I’m working on evenweave fabric, but I shall try them out when I move onto non-evenweave.

Brandon Jones uses a wider range of stitches in this book, which makes it more interesting – I was getting a bit bored with just variations of chain and fly stitch.

When I got my first Brandon Jones book I fossicked around on the internet, in search of more – which is why I now have three. I also found out a bit more about her, chiefly from a Wikipedia article about her son, John, who was an architect. (It turns out he designed this, which I drive past several times a week.)

I’ve tried to find out a bit more about Anne, using the internet and Find My Past, and drawn up a provisional timeline of her life. Some of these bits I’m sure about, others are based on adding 2 + 2 and getting 4.5. If you know better, please let me know!

Annie (not Anne) Brandon was born on the 25th August 1878 in Hendon in Middlesex. I think she was one of the seven children of William Brandon, a police constable, and his wife, Martha. There were at least two other Annie Brandons living in Hendon at the end of the 19th century, but this Annie seems the most likely candidate. In 1901 this Annie, aged 22, was living with her parents and working in a book shop.

At some time, it is unclear when, she attended the Central School of Art and Crafts, now part of Central St Martins.

In 1907 she married Philip Jones, who had been born in Leicester in 1876. To 21st century eyes, the merging of their names seems like a feminist gesture, but I don’t think we can make this assumption – perhaps they just liked the name Brandon Jones!

In 1911 they were living in Hendon, and had a son, John, born in 1908. Wikipedia suggests that the family were involved with the Arts and Crafts Movement, a strong influence on John’s architecture.

Annie and Philip had three more children: Noel (1911) and Mary (1914), both born in Hendon, and Una (1916) born in St Albans.

In the 20s the family moved to Berkhamsted, where Philip taught at Berkhamsted School. It was in this period that Simple Stitch Patterns for Embroidery (1926), Stitch Patterns and Design for Embroidery (1929) and Colour Pattern For Embroidery (1932) were published. Annie also seems to have been writing for Good Housekeeping magazine.

By 1939 Annie and Philip, now in their 60s, had moved with Una to a flat in St Pancras. In the 1939 Register, compiled just before the start of WW2, Annie describes her occupation as a landscape and flower painter.

Philip died in 1944. In 1947, Annie sailed to Australia, where her daughter Mary had gone in 1939. Annie returned the following year, and died in 1968 in Richmond on Thames.

of embroidering a quote from Louise Bourgeois: ‘The act of sewing is a process of emotional repair’. I have already embroidered a similar quote from her about needles, but I felt I had to do this one as well.

When I first sat down with my sampler this evening , I wondered why I was doing so, because I found myself brooding about a trivial but annoying event which occurred today – someone who won’t take no for an answer. Why was I stitching – which I can do while thinking – rather than playing computer games, which I can’t? And why I was wasting so much emotional energy on a minor hassle, when there are much more stressful things going on in my life to worry about?

From that I drifted into wondering whether I agreed with Bourgeois, rather than just thinking it was an interesting quote about sewing to add to the sampler. And if so, why?

Well, I did spend a few moments imagining I was stabbing my needle into the people causing the stresses and hassles, and thinking about making a doll to stab pins into, but that didn’t last very long. (I don’t believe this will harm the person you are imagining stabbing, but I think it may be enjoyable for the one doing the stabbing.)

However my thoughts soon turned to the meditative nature of sewing, which I assume is what Bourgeois was talking about. When the current stress in our lives started last spring, I did spend a lot of time doing things which stopped me thinking – computer games, reading etc. But over the last few weeks I have been doing much more embroidery than I have for ages – very traditional, structured embroidery, exploring other people’s ideas. Why? Perhaps because it is straightforward, or because the only decisions I have to make are about what to do next and what thread to use – but perhaps also because it allows me to be creative without requiring the mental energy that more original work would need?

But whatever the reason, thinking about it all and then writing this has taken my mind off stresses and hassles – and to get it all into proportion, perhaps. We are gradually moving towards a resolution of the stress, and the hassle will go away if we keep saying ‘no’ – and, if necessary, block the hassler’s phone number. All we have to do is wait. That seems like ’emotional repair’.

On the other hand, we have decided to move house this year, which will be a major source of stress. I’ll keep plying the needle, it’s better than drink or drugs

I’m quite pleased with myself for having finished this collection of spot motifs from Simple Stitch Patterns for Embroidery before I ran out of year. Because, although I don’t do New Year’s resolutions (been there, tried that, never kept them) I am very good at taking on too many internet challenges, group activities, etc.

2. The 100 Days Project Solstice to Equinox Challenge. I’ve done full 100 Days challenges before, but I decided it was a bit much to do it now with everything else I’ve committed myself to. Solstice to Equinox is weekly, so, inspired by Lize Bard’s wonderful blog, I’m planning on writing a weekly haiku. Of course, the Solstice was nearly 2 weeks ago, but better late than never.

3. One Year of Stitches 2018. Which is really just going on with the band sampler, which I was planning on doing anyway. (For some reason FB won’t let me download a link to the group…)

4. Sharon Boggon’s Beyond TAST. This is a bit of cheek, because although I’ve started TAST several times in the past, I’ve never got very far with it. I’m hoping I can also combine Beyond TAST with the band sampler, perhaps alternating/combining it with my Anne Brandon Jones project.